ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A child-support case winding its way through
the courts offers a new twist on an old scandal: The accused
deadbeat father is a Roman Catholic priest.

The two "kids" suing
him and the Jesuits for support are now grown men with children
of their own.

Jesuit leaders have known for
nearly 40 years that the Rev. James Jacobson had children here
and eventually kept him out of Alaska to avoid "any possible
scandal for the Church in Alaska," according to a new legal
filing on behalf of his two sons. The mother of one of the men
also is suing Jacobson for child support and damages. The other
mother has died.

Messages left for Jacobson
and his attorney on Tuesday were not returned. Efforts to reach
the Jesuits and their attorneys were also unsuccessful.

"They say he shouldn't
have to pay child support because he's a priest and took a vow
of poverty," said Anchorage attorney Chris Cooke, who filed
the child-support motion in January for the three, identified
in court documents only as John A. Doe, John B. Doe and Jane
B. Doe.

Jacobson always has turned
his money over to his religious order, Society of Jesus Oregon
Province, which covers Alaska. He can't keep money because he
is a priest, his lawyer, Joan Unger of Anchorage, wrote in opposing
the motion for child support. The Jesuits say in court papers
they don't have to pay child support for priests.

But being a priest doesn't
erase the responsibility to care for one's children, Cooke said.
Nor does time wipe away the obligation.

No one disputes that Jacobson
fathered the two men. Relying on DNA testing in 2005, a Bethel
judge in May declared him to be the biological father of both
John Does.

Their mothers, both married
at the time, were sexually assaulted by Jacobson and became pregnant,
according to a lawsuit filed in Bethel Superior Court in October
2005. Jacobson also is accused in the suit of raping a 16-year-old
girl in another Western Alaska village.

Jacobson, now 83, was ordained
as a Jesuit priest and worked in Alaska from about 1961 to 1976
in various Yup'ik villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. He also
was a school principal at a Jesuit school near Glennallen. He
later became a prison chaplain in Oregon.

He took "simple vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience," according to documents
provided by the Jesuits and quoted in court papers.

"Apparently Father Jacobson
did not adhere to his vow of chastity," Cooke wrote in a
footnote to one of his filings.

Jacobson now lives in a Jesuit
home in Spokane, Wash.

Since his children were born,
Jacobson has received more than $1.5 million in salary and pension,
but it all went to the Jesuits and neither he nor the religious
order ever gave his children a dime, the legal filings say.

His sons grew up hardscrabble
and unsure of who they really were, Cooke said. One, now 40,
is in the Alaska National Guard and is serving in Kuwait. The
other, 31, has worked as a plumber's apprentice.

It's uncommon for a child-support
case to be brought once the child is grown but not unheard of,
Cooke said. The John Does only now are able to do so since they've
just established paternity, he said.

This is the first time, as
far as Cooke knows, that Alaskans have sought child support from
a Catholic priest, but there have been other cases around the
country.

John A. Doe is seeking nearly
$325,000 in child support. John B. Doe is seeking more than $270,000.